Burning Man Website Undergoing Magical Transformation

A hard working crew of writers and geeks at BMHQ have teamed up to build a brand spankin’ new website for Burning Man. This has been a long time coming and we’re soooo looking forward to sharing it with you.

As you know, earlier this year Burning Man became a non-profit. As part of our evolution from an organization dedicated solely to producing the annual event in the desert to a global network fostering Burning Man culture near and far, we are transitioning from burningman.com to burningman.org.

In order to make this grand leap, certain portions of the current site are going to be unavailable for short periods of time later this week. We know there are very important conversations happening in the community right now and we in no way want to stifle them.

We believe the blog will only need to be ‘pulled’ for several hours on Friday. If it were possible, we’d love to make the transition from burningman.com to burningman.org without disrupting current communication channels, but we’re working with a lot of moving bits and pieces and this is a necessary part of the process.

We also know there are lots of folks wondering about the theme for 2015 and the new process for applying for art grants. All of these details will be included on the new site, so we’re working fast and furiously to get it up and ready as soon as possible.

You can expect some parts of the current site to be unavailable at certain times later this week, and we look forward to sharing the new one with you very soon!

Awesome!!! Because (as so many burners have been saying for months now) a brand new burning man web site is the most important thing to burners right now. Thank you so much for listening and taking care of this.

I am 70 years old and this year I was able to meet my daughter at Burning Man for the first time. She had been going for a number of years and we had been trying to get together there for years and it finally worked out. Yes, I have done plenty of camping in tents and out in the open in my life. However the only way I could have enjoyed Burning Man as much as I did at this time is in an RV.
True, if I were a few years younger I would have no problem camping outside. But I’m not, and I was able to experience something with my daughter that will be very special for both of us the rest of our lives.
So I am very happy to have been able to sleep in my bed and use my generator.

I am 70 years old and this year I was able to meet my daughter at Burning Man for the first time. She had been going for a number of years and we had been trying to get together there for years and it finally worked out. Yes, I have done plenty of camping in tents and out in the open in my life. However the only way I could have enjoyed Burning Man as much as I did at this time is in an RV.
True, if I were a few years younger I would have no problem camping outside. But I’m not, and I was able to experience something with my daughter that will be very special for both of us the rest of our lives.
So I am very happy to have been able to sleep in my bed and use my generator.

And yes, I did park at a regular camp and had no complaints from anyone there.

The socially responsible thing to do would be fulfill your promise of addressing the public’s questions about commodification camps from the article “turnkey camps moving toward effective solutions” BEFORE creating a new website if it will interfere communication… What are you avoiding? Why is creating this site more important than simply answering everyone’s questions which presumably takes so much less effort? This garbage propaganda STINKS, we can smell your lies. )'(

It becomes more difficult by the day to keep my cynicism at bay. And I really do not appreciate being talked at like I’m some starry-eye kool-aide guzzler. C’mon you guys. Stop believing your own press releases and join the rest of us here on Earth.

“Effective Solutions” and “Reforms” my ass. Here it is, and you heard it here before Larry opens his mouth officially: “Commodification camps are evil. We dont approve. We have heard your concerns! Henceforth all camps must go through placement as a theme camp.” (Tepid applause from burners).

Sounds great, right? Wrong. Larry whispers into Placements ear to approve certain camps and put them out where most wont see them. They get DD and EA and put a bunch of bucks in Larrys hip pocket quietly. The Commodifiers show up, scalp tickets for major bucks to rich patrons, hire a goon to give away popsicles, and leave another big mess without any real participation. Larry laments “they did it wrong”. Another little SherpaGate. Oh well.

Next year: same thing. Camp has a different name. Favors get granted again. DD. EA. $$ in Larrys pocket. Mess at the end. Scalped tickets. Outrage.

But wait! Now it is all totally kosher, and Larry still gets his bucks. Larry can claim these camps have “gamed the system”, and “violated our trust”. Without transparency of the placement and financials, we cant show otherwise.

Yup. We are chumps. One way or another, Larry wins. Burningman is the new Disney. E-Tickets and all.

As a web developer myself, I know that redesigns are months in the making, so as much as I’d like some answers on the commodifcation camp issue, I don’t believe this press release and/or the redesign is any kind of attempt at redirection. I was wondering when the site would get a makeover, although the early aughts look and feel has grown on me over the years. Good luck on the launch.

I’m so surprised by the venom. Massive sour grapes. If I had spent my life blood for 28 years on a project, I’m not sure I would be so patient with such entitlement, and hostility. When I volunteer to help build the city in whatever capacity, I do it as a guest. I’m excited to see what’s ahead. I adore this event and appreciate all the hard work that goes into the massive effort to produce Burning Man. (Blazing Guy) Thank you profusely. <3

Two facts are straight here. One is that I’m an outsider. Two is that there is a controversy happening in this moment.

I’m an outsider in the sense that I have never been to Burning Man. I’ve thought about going for years. I’ve lived in a house with Burners. I’ve researched it. But I’ve never been, so I consider myself an outsider.

There is a controversy happening in this moment. Please see the previous posts to understand it. By controversy I simply mean that there is a public disagreement about the concern of an organization’s response to allegations that it has undermined the moral fabric of the event.

Somebody wrote an allegory about it. Somebody made fun of it. Somebody gave an ultimatum and somebody got defensive about it. The organization decided to revamp the website.

I wonder what Burning Man will be like ten years from now. Do you think that it will be the same or do you think that it will be something different? I’ve never been so I can only imagine that there will be dust storms.

Hey everyone, this is Moze. I’ve been working on the new site and yes, it has been months in the making and started well before the Commodification discussion. It’s pretty awesome and yes, it is responsive and works on mobile devices.

I, like all the other bloggers up here, don’t know where the Board is with delivering a reply to the community’s questions, but I know it is definitely something they are working on and one thing I’ve seen while working on this new site, is that our history is full of these challenges, from tickets selling out to the Jiffy Lube controversy, to the city changing, to large scale sound camps integration. We as a community have made it through all those things.

This one is our biggest challenge yet, no misdirection, it’s a big deal that they need to get right. And I really hope they do that and I haven’t jumped into the blogging fray because I don’t have answers to the real concerns people have voiced about what went down in Popsicle Camp, on this blog, Facebook and other places. The Org will have to supply those. Then I can talk about what direction they are taking this thing because we will all know.

Our challenges in many ways define us as much as everything else that makes up Burning Man.

But damn, I hope we can launch a beautiful website redesign without it being entirely overwhelmed by the current outrage comments. The people who did all the work on the site have nothing to do with what happened this year on K Street. We’re just worker ants and Burners like you who love the event and want to share it with the world , and we want it to be better, and we all hope the Org meets this challenge before them, sooner than later.

It seems clear to me that the reason for announcing the new site and the fact that the blog will be down for as much as a day, was to clarify this was a planned transition long before the recent controversy and was not an attempt to disrupt the debate. I suspect if not for the recent debate, they wouldn’t have said anything ahead of time. It’s not like the site has never been down before. I think it is a good sign the org is listening. We’ll see what the results are.

I think it is great that folks continue to ask the questions to which we all want answers. Keep up the pressure. Mention it in every blog post until we have an answer. That being said, speculations about Larry, the org, the BOD, their motivations and plans, are just that, speculation. I realize they result from a lack of actual information, but I think they are unfair and unhelpful. If in the end they make decisions that compromise the integrity of the event and fail to level the playing field, I will be the first one on the barricades, but until then I will give them the benefit of the doubt. It’s easy to make a mistake. It’s difficult to admit it. It’s heroic to fix it. I still believe the org has some heroes in it.

Cynical statements that the org is unredeemably consumed by greed and this will never get better are more damaging than the silence. They are based on ignorance and anger and are counterproductive. Cynicism is a lazy person’s way of saying they don’t have to be part of the solution.

Thank you Moze!! You said it better than I could have. It has been difficult watching this conversation happen and not knowing exactly how to participate.

I am very excited about the website update, have been hearing about it for YEARS and know it has been a whole heck of a lot of work.

And as for the rest. I’m with you. Burning Man – the community, the event, the nonprofit, the culture – needs to get this right. I’ll only add that, in my humble opinion as a Burner and not as a voice of the Org, a real and well-thought-out solution is worth waiting a little longer for.

Moze – thanks.
And to follow-up on that, this redesign has been in the works long before there was any PnP controversy afoot. Ya’ll are shitting on artists who’s craft is web design. They have put a lot of work into this and the work is in no way related to any nefarious plans. So snark all you want, but at the end of the day know that you are sending bullshit message to the ‘artists’ that their work sucks.

As a burner who has participated in 10 of the last 11 burns, I can say that this site is exactly what this community needs right now.

I love the timeline for taking us back through the history of all those burns I’ve lived with all of you: http://burningman.org/timeline/ Thank you to the artists that created this.

And it is so incredible to visit the burns that came before my time…if I could have participated as a jr. high school student in 1986, I would have been there.

Thank you to Larry and all of the founders for making this possible. I am grateful for the profound changes in my own life brought about here.

I have expressed my personal negative opinions about the PnP situation. But as this reborn site creates a powerful new reflection for us all, I believe it is time to move forward and embrace all the members of our Burning Man family, though walled-off some of them may have been.

I’m sure I will be engulfed in flames faster than the man was this past year for this post but I couldn’t care less. First of all, to anyone who volunteered to make this site for little or zero compensation, thank you very much! That said, if you were compensated as much as most outside people would have been, that’s just called a job. When I carry people out of burning buildings etc. (I’m not a volunteer), although I get them, I feel I deserve no thanks yous. It’s my job. (I’m already seeing the bic lighters coming out). And no, I will not put blue painters tape over the word BIC because this is obviously not against any principle that I know of anymore with this event -(make that festival now). I’m not much of a tech person, so I apologize for my ignorance, but all this website is to me is a source for information. Going from a black background to a tan one, I don’t see more information. Again, sorry for my ignorance, I’m sure/hoping there are all kinds of things made better, simpler etc. with the new one. There is however no more of what I come here for though. So unless when the smoke clears, the org formerly known as the .com comes up with some amazing “we couldn’t fill you in on the big picture until now because”… and “we hope this clears everything up” Kumbaya kinda of shit, this feels (to me) as if George Bush is continuing to read to the 1st graders after being told the first tower just fell. Extreme example? Absolutely. But whether it’s a zucchini or a doctors finger, someone is still shoving something up your ass. If the “org” knew about this shit as they were doing it and said either “they’ll’ never find out”, or “if ‘they’ do, this is what ‘we’ll’ say”. Then fuck you “org”, and I hope your other tower falls. If on the other hand the “org” was truly unaware about ANY of this (can anyone even still think that’s possible?), they have had over 2 months (this year) to explain how things will be corrected. As numerous festival attendees have stated already, it’s WAY too much time unless they are spinning the playapiss out of the cookie jar so “we” don’t see they’re hand full of the gourmet cookies. Again thank you to ANY volunteers even though I don’t get it. I’m sure smarter people than myself will. Ok, go get your Kingsford briquettes and flame away.

I’ve been coming to Burning Man for a long time. Longer than most of you. Not as long as some. It has changed. In some ways for the better, in some ways not. But people always ask me, Is it too late? Is it over? Did I miss it? Especially now, with all the focus on turnkey camps.

Here’s my answer? Are you fricking kidding? If all you can do is complain about these issues, then you haven’t spent enough time (a) volunteering to help solve the problems; (b) walking around deep playa late at night stumbling onto amazing art or into incredible random conversations.

Burning Man will always have controversies. Those of you who have only been around awhile probably think your shiny new toy is being ruined by turnkey camps. But really, how so? I’m a Ranger, and spent a bit of time dealing with some of the entitlement at one of the biggest turnkey camps this year. Someone actually used, as a rationale for why I should accept their side of an argument, that they and their people had paid $100,000 to be there. I was apoplectic.

But did that make the REST of Burning Man a disaster? Not even close. Did you visit the Last Outpost? Did you high-five a Ranger (you should). Did you stop and gawk at Tango’d Up in Blues in Center Camp? If you did those things, you’re a participant, and you know that Burning Man is what WE make it. If you didn’t, then make sure you do them next year.

It is not Utopia, folks, and never has been. And do the organizers make some money? Sure, and why shouldn’t they? They work their asses off all year long putting on the most incredible event in the world, and believe me, they don’t get to enjoy it as much as you and I do. Because they have to work.

But it still is the best place in the world. Someone above me in this thread asked about what Burning Man will be like in 10 years. Well, I’ve been coming for far longer than 10 years, and it has changed. In my view, for the better.

So…relax, folks. Come out next year, work your ass off to set up your camp/art/project, do some volunteering. Get no sleep. See and interact with amazing art. Dance a lot. Eat great food. Get a little dehydrated. Repeat. And then you’ll see that Burning Man is doing just fine.

Greeter Dan. No offence, but you are in a ling line of folks who are missing the point by a mile. This isn’t about jealousy, it’s about integrity. We don’t care if the rich come to party. What we care about is the possibility the org actually thinks mr $100k deserves to win the argument because he paid $100k. If they are getting special tickets or placement because of who they are rather than what they contribute, we have the right to be outraged like you were. Read Halcyon’s last quote. BTW, website looks great.

Hey Greeter Dan, thanks for all you do. I have not missed one year since I bought a $2000 van, fine tuned a shade structure in my back yard, filled it with the gear and clothes I thought I would need plus a bunch of shit I may never need to give someone that may have a problem (think McGiever on steroids), drove 3/4 of the way across the country with my girlfriend with one way tickets home and a place to store the “rv”. I have volunteered the pabst out of my pores, and would not have changed a thing (except a thermostat). Burning man is life changing. Somehow I knew that before I committed to my first burn (only 7 years ago). The reason there is so much passion, fear, anger etc. about this is that the change we are seeing is not something as subtle as shaken not stirred. It is a complete shift of what is. As amazing as the virtues of celibacy could be, it can not, will not ever be the most amazing sex in the world. Will I still travel across the country to spend my time and money bringing new people to experience the most amazing celibacy on the planet? Probably not. Regardless of the final outcome, I understand why so many of the most awesome sexual people are so passionate about getting fucked.

And by the way, funny you should mention it but I was at the outpost with a new friend at around 4am on I believe thursday morning. While we were climbing down the stairs, a guy with a unicorn horn was coming up asking if we were the people who ordered the pepperoni pizza he had in his hands. As bad as I wanted that hot amazing smelling pizza, my friend and I declined, so that he could blow at least one more persons mind. That one experience was enough to have done all I did to get there the first time. If it was some kid from Dominos I probably would not have the memory of the walk down the stairs that I do. And I think I can speak for my friend too.

the man is dead
burnt to a crisp
the vultures set in
to pick the carrion clean
crush the bones to powder
decompose its putrid remains
let it rest til time immemorial
winter is still a mummer away
just preparing to unfurl its
long dark shadowy talons
driven deep, below, beyond
transcend

I miss the Gerlach web cam, are you guys going to bring it back?
After all it is on a purpose built tower out there.
I watch it to keep an eye on the weather, and how that might affect the surface for the event.